


Five Times Nicholas Held Back

by LokiOfSassgaard



Category: Hot Fuzz (2007)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-11-27
Updated: 2008-11-27
Packaged: 2018-05-28 01:26:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6308830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LokiOfSassgaard/pseuds/LokiOfSassgaard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sandford is slowly corrupting Nicholas, but at the same time, he hasn't changed at all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Times Nicholas Held Back

It wouldn’t be like last time. Going to the pub and getting completely pissed seemed only to lead to incredibly, unthinkably bad things. Houses would blow up and cars would catch fire, and the police (which was Nicholas) would be called.

Danny nudged at him from one side, and Tony from the other, both red faced and barely able to keep their balance, hands held tightly onto the sticky bar surface.

“Come on, then, Nick,” Danny encouraged easily. “You can get a little drunk.”

Nicholas shook his head, taking the cranberry juice from the bartender. “I’m already ‘a little drunk’,” he responded. “Which implies that I’m done getting drunk.”

Danny frowned and turned away slightly.

“Come on, now, Inspector,” Tony said, trying his best to sound authoritative. “Wot’s it possibly gonna hurt?”

Nicholas inhaled deeply, and just then, his mobile went off. A cursory glance at the screen told him it was important. “Yeah?” he answered tiredly.

Soon as Kevin Turner started talking, Nicholas knew that whatever happened had been bad; or at least bad by Sandford standards. Sighing to himself, he put his cranberry juice back down on the bar and walked out to the street, trying to remember where the hell Norris Avenue was.

* * *

He hated the foot chases. Hated them only marginally worse than he did in London. In the city, he had the excuse of not liking the heavy crowds on the sidewalks, and the inevitable civilian injuries that always came when he chased someone down the street.

In Sandford, it was the simple matter that he still had no buggering idea where he was half the time, and more often than not, the person he was chasing did. It was always a quick short cut through some back alley way, or quickly cutting across an intersection Nicholas wasn’t familiar with.

At least Danny was. He probably knew Sandford better than anybody, knowing every nook and cranny in the entire village, and knowing that if you go down this alley way here, and take a sharp left there, you’d wind up ahead of whoever it was they happened to be chasing.

Of course, this whole knowledge hinged on Danny’s ability to actually run. Usually, it was Nicholas doing the actual running, with Danny managing to keep up, but something seemed to have changed, as of recently. Danny seemed to actually give a damn. The man could actually move when he wanted to, and he definitely seemed to want to today.

“This way!” Danny said, smacking Nicholas on the arm as he rounded a sharp corner. They ran blindly through the alleyway, catching a flash of a suede jacket up ahead. “Fucker!” Danny growled.

Whatever it was, it was personal somehow. Nicholas could have easily caught the man, but he slowed ever so slightly, letting Danny take the lead, and slamming the man into a wall with his full weight.

For three weeks after, all the talk round the station w as about how Danny had finally made his first real arrest since the NWA.

* * *

If there was one thing he despised, it was someone else’s trash in his front garden. It was supposed to be his day off, and instead, he was waking up to a disaster in front of his house. Completely uncaring about what the neighbours thought, Nicholas stomped down the front walk in his pyjamas, following the trail of debris over to the cottage to his right. This particular neighbour had a dog, and Nicholas knew this, because he’d seen the mangy thing on multiple occasions. And this particular dog, as Nicholas had also bore witness to, would frequently escape from the back garden, causing mess and mayhem in its wake.

And it was because of this dog that Nicholas was walking barefoot on wet slate stones to his neighbour’s house. He knocked firmly on the door, waiting for what seemed like ages for the door to open. Soon has he heard the initial creaking of old hinges, he straightened up, pre pared to raise hell if he had to. He fell flat, however, when an old woman, probably about ninety pulled the door open.

“Yes?” she asked, sounding almost scared.

Nicholas stammered for a few moments. “Ma’am, I think your dog got out last night,” he said.

The old woman shook her head. “No,” she said. “Biscuits stays in at night. He’s right here, see?”

Nicholas peered around her, finding a dog that was not at all like the one he’d seen in her back garden curled up by the sofa. “Do... you have another dog, then?” he asked.

The woman shook her head. “No...” she said, a tinge of confusion on the edges of her voice. “Why?”

Nicholas sighed. “I...think something got into your bin last night,” he said tiredly. “Do you need help cleaning it up?”

The woman smiled up at him. “Bless you,” she said. “Such a nice young man.”

Nicholas nodded bitterly. “Let me... go get my shoes,” he said wi th a sigh.

* * *

It had been Tony’s idea to make the boy do community service, and Nicholas agreed that it was indeed a fine idea. Of course, that put the matter directly into Nicholas’ hands, and short of making Gabriel chase after swans and risk killing himself, he couldn’t think of a single damn thing to have the boy do for the four hours Tony had mandated. He found himself sitting behind an unused desk, reading a two-day-old news paper as he made up tasks for Gabriel to do around the station, spanning from emptying bins to making sure that Saxon’s leads were all arranged properly and that he was fed.

Eventually, Gabriel stopped in the middle of the room, his hands limply at his sides.

“Nick, can I go home?” he asked, trying to make himself sound like he wasn’t really whining.

“Inspector,” Nicholas corrected.

“Inspector Nick, can I go home?”

Nicholas tried not to laugh as he checked his watch. “You’ve still an hour an d a half,” he said. “And I’m sure there are shoes that need polishing, or something.”

Gabriel whined loudly as he sulked off to finish making sure all of the windows were clean. Four hours for a Sharpie G on a shop window did seem a little harsh, Nicholas rationalised. And it wasn’t like he didn’t want to go home, either.

“Gabriel,” Nicholas said evenly.

“I’m washing the damn windows,” the boy insisted.

“Tell you what,” Nicholas said, putting his paper down on the desk. “I don’t want to be here any more than you. I’ll sign you off for your time, but if you’re caught writing on anything that isn’t homework, you will do a full eight, and I’ll personally make sure of it.”

Gabriel nodded nervously. “Okay...”

Nicholas nodded back to the supply closet. “Put that away and go home,” he said.

* * *

There was definitely something satisfying about putting in a full day’s work. He’d done something pro ductive, helped people, and made the community overall a better place. A good day indeed.

He was in his office, rounding off the end of the day with a final check of his emails, when there was a light knock on his door. “Yeah?” he asked.

Slowly, the door opened, and Danny stepped inside. He gently closed the door behind him. Something about him tonight was definitely different, but Nicholas couldn’t tell exactly what. He seemed almost timid; quiet.

“Everything all right, Danny?” Nicholas asked, looking up from his computer.

Danny shrugged, leaning against the door. “S’pose, yeah,” he said. “Just wonderin’ what you were doin’ tonight, s’all.”

Nicholas shrugged, shaking his head lightly. “I don’t know, Danny,” he said. “I’m kinda knackered.

Danny shifted awkwardly. “Oh,” he said. “I was thinkin’ we might be able to go to the cinema in Buford Abbey to catch the new Bond film.”

Nicholas shook his head politely. “No, not tonight,” he said. “Maybe some other time.”

He watched Danny deflate slightly as he opened the office door. “Yeah,” he said quietly. “Maybe.”

Even Nicholas couldn’t help but notice the complete look of disappointment and rejection that washed over Danny. As he watched him leave the office, shutting the door behind him, Nicholas realized that he had totally and completely blown it.


End file.
